The Ohio State University marching band has become the new toast of viral media.

A bastion of tradition, the 225-member ensemble scored a wealth of bonus points with fans
attending the OSU-Nebraska football game Saturday night in Ohio Stadium as well as a global online
audience.

All the attention resulted from the group’s nostalgic, inventive,
did-they-really-just-replicate-a-galloping-horse? halftime tribute to video games.

With iconic music and imagery from
Super Mario Bros.,
Space Invaders,
Halo and other titles, the performance has wowed Facebook fanatics and national media
still gobbling up the amateur YouTube footage like Pac-Man chasing a ghost (which also was part of
the act).

Entertainment Weekly called the show “transfixing in its awesomeness”; influential geek
havens Reddit and Mashable touted the clip; an ESPN.com blogger commented, “Your move, Michigan”;
and emails and calls from around the world continue to pour in.

“We won one for all the bands out there,” said interim director Jon Waters, who couldn’t recall
a show in his 11 years at the school receiving so much chatter.

“It’s a unique study in popular culture and the Internet and what makes things go.”

The nine-minute effort has logged more than 4.4 million views — a digital groundswell that
Waters said originated via sports and video-game communities, then spread to mainstream news and
social-media outlets where quirky home recordings regularly gain notice.

Among the admirers: Richard Suk, director of the Marching 110, the showy Ohio University
marching band whose 2011 rendition of the
LMFAO pop hit
Party Rock Anthem has attracted more than 8.5 million YouTube clicks.

“I said: ‘And you did it without dancing!’ ” said Suk, who sent an email of praise to Waters. “
He said: ‘We’re just trying to keep up with you guys.’ ”

The Athens bunch has sparked conversation again this season after a Sept. 22 rendition of the
unlikely hit
Gangnam Style by Korean singer-rapper Psy — coupled with a corresponding dance in which band members
mirrored the signature horse-riding boogie.

Unlike last season’s effort, the recent show clocked millions of Web hits in days, not
weeks.

“News spreads fast when you see something fun,” said OU senior Nick Murden, 20, a trumpet player
and Worthington native who also choreographs for the band. “Then, it’s really out of our
hands."

Success, though, wasn’t without strategy.

Because the tune flew up U.S. airplay charts almost overnight, Suk quickly saw potential — but,
given its viral rise and foreign tongue, figured the shelf life was limited.

An arranger in Springfield, Ohio, wrote the music within 24 hours; players learned the moves in
three days.

Even though the Marching 110 has a YouTube channel, the band relies on spectator videos for
momentum (a student-led film crew independent of the group employed multiple cameras to produce a
better-quality
Gangnam Style clip).

A voluminous number of online viewings “puts pressure on us, but in a good way,” Suk said. “It
creates a sense of responsibility.”

The Ohio State show, likewise, took time to develop.

Suggestions for a video-game routine, Waters said, had come up for the past five years during
annual student meetings.

“I knew it was going to be very appealing to the audience.”

An arranger began tackling the music (including
Halo and
The Legend of Zelda selections, which Waters called “very symphonic in nature”) during the
summer. Computer software aided the complex chart work crafted by interim assistant director Chris
Hoch.

Still, the students had only a week to learn the tunes and execute the complicated visuals —
which included likenesses of Pokemon and the stately horse Epona from
Zelda; rectangular Tetris pieces locking into place; and a University of Michigan flag
lowered as Mario enters his castle, mimicking the mark of a finished level in the 1985 Nintendo
title.

Waters, 36, who assumed the interim-director role this fall after longtime director Jon Woods
retired, insisted that he isn’t trying to change the culture of the band, preferring to call his
mindset “tradition through innovation.”

Still, other band presentations in 2012 have hinted at elements of a stylistic sea change: A
Sept. 1 tribute to the Beach Boys featured a formation that created a surfer riding waves, and a
Sept. 15 tribute to space exploration bore a smoke-spewing shuttle.

How to top that?

On Oct. 20, when the Buckeyes take on Purdue at home, the musicians will offer a “spoof on the
Mayan calendar” doomsday theme — one that Waters said will feature “a spaceship descent onto the
field with Michigan Martians abducting an Ohio State cheerleader.”

Waters is happy to accept accolades while also challenging marching-band stereotypes, but he
added that the Best Damn Band in the Land has little time to bask in the buzz.

“The irony of the whole thing is that this show is now history. We’re moving on to the next
one."